My Mother Peeling Apples

This artwork is not available to buy as a custom printThis artwork is not available to buy as a custom print

About this artwork

This image of the photographer's mother, Susan Elizabeth Johnson Cunningham, dates from an early Pictorialist phase when Cunningham was much influenced by the group gathered around Alfred Stieglitz. She described her mother as a gentle, quiet woman who 'never expressed an opinion of any kind' and was totally devoted to her family. Cunningham successfully escaped this form of voluntary imprisonment and became one of the first women in the history of photography to make a living from her work. As the photographer noted, she had 'a skill with the camera' which she was 'not willing to sacrifice to maternity'.

Imogen Cunningham

Imogen Cunningham

Imogen Cunningham was one of the most significant modernist photographers in the United States, with a career that spanned more than seven decades. After training in photographic processing techniques, she opened a portrait studio in Seattle in 1910, before going on to work in San Francisco alongside photographers like Edward…